1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for reporting the status of a queue line to remote persons-in-queue, through a personal contact device specified by each person, such as a paging receiver (pager), a cell phone, a digital phone (Personal Handy-phone System) or a wired network telephone.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 10-169461, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
The type of queuing reporting apparatus described in the present invention is generally found at a service desk, and is used to contact remote persons, waiting to be served but are currently away from the service desk.
For example, Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, Sho 63-86096 discloses a wireless method of notifying a waiting person that the system is ready to serve the person.
This queuing reporting system will be explained with reference to FIG. 13. In this method, the service desk distributes a portable receiver unit having an ID code (identification code) particular to each unit to each waiting person so that when the service becomes available to a certain waiting person, the service desk transmits a signal carrying an ID code assigned to the unit held by certain waiting person.
When a call signal with the ID code is transmitted for the particular waiting person who is ready to be served, the receiver unit having the ID code accepts the call signal, and the receiver unit activates a buzzer.
However, this method of contacting a waiting person is based on receiver units responsive to a particular transmitter, and it is necessary to have on hand a suitable number of dedicated receiver units that respond to the transmitter. Therefore, for a service desk dealing with many customers, such as a busy store front, it is necessary to stock a fairly large number of transmitters, resulting in a high capital cost. Furthermore, because the transmitter operates on a privately owned frequency, it is necessary for the sender to have a broadcasting license. Additionally, such private signal transmitters are restricted to a low delivery power so that the receivers (customers) are required to remain within the range of signal delivery capability of the transmitter.
It is sometimes unavoidable for a waiting person to cancel or postpone a queue spot, after having reserved a place in a queue line. In such a case, the queuing monitoring system must have a capability to deal with cancellation or re-scheduling requests.
However, Japanese Patent Application, Sho 63-86096 does neither mention such possibilities, nor provide any suggestions for dealing with cancellation or re-scheduling requests.
Another Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, Hei 7-66891, discloses a queuing system in which the service desk reports the latest progress in the queuing status by contacting individual telephones or paging receivers that are registered with the service desk.
However, Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, Hei 7-66891 does not mention that, when the customer""s unit is a telephone, it is necessary to deliver the message as voice signals, but when the customer""s unit is a paging receiver, it is necessary to deliver the message as data signals, and, furthermore, that it is necessary for the transmitter to determine whether the message should be in voice signals or data signals on the basis of the ID codes of the receiver units, and be able to switch between the two modes of communication. Such complexities are not mentioned at all in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, Hei 7-66891.
As well, Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, Hei 7-66891 does not mention that cancellations or re-scheduling are unavoidable in practice, and that a reporting system should be capable of processing cancellations and re-scheduling. The lack of such a capability would be fatal to proper functioning of banks.
Further, Japanese Patent Applications, First Publications, Sho 62-95057, Hei 7240796, and Hei 7-250186 disclose a reporting device for delivering a report to a user by contacting individual telephones, which is not able to switch between the two modes of voice and data communication and to handle cancellations or re-scheduling.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus to contact a call-reserving user to report that a service will soon be available, by calling a paging receiver (pager) or a telephone device (including cell phones, digital phones and wired network phones) belonging to the call-reserving user so that if the receiving unit is a paging receiver, a word-report is delivered while the receiving unit is a telephone device, a voice-report if delivered.
It is another object of the present invention that the apparatus includes a function to accept a cancellation or postponement request.
These objects have been achieved in a queuing status reporting apparatus for reporting that a service will soon be available to a call-reserving user holding a queuing ticket in a queuing line, by calling a paging receiver or a telephone device specified by the call-reserving user, comprising: a user data memory for storing a paging receiver number or a telephone number as a contact number relating to each call-reserving user, and a call-timing as a schedule for contacting each call-reserving user; a reporting control device connected to the user data memory for searching through call-timing data to detect a call-due user, and if a call-due user is found, to access a relevant contact number from the user data memory, and to decide whether the relevant contact number is a paging receiver number or a telephone number; a pager contact device connected to the reporting control device for sending a word-report to a pager receiver, when the relevant contact number obtained by the reporting control device is judged to be a paging receiver; and a phone contact device connected to the reporting control device for sending a voice-report to a telephone device, when the detected contact number obtained by the reporting control device is judged to be a telephone device.
Accordingly, the present queuing status reporting apparatus eliminates the need for an organization to provide special-purpose signal receivers for its customers, thereby overcoming a serious disadvantage in the existing wireless reporting methods requiring dedicated signal receivers to be distributed to each customer. The present reporting apparatus significantly reduces economic burden on the organization, because reporting is carried out by using public access phone systems, such as cell phones, PHS phones or fixed phones so that there is no need for providing special-purpose receivers to each customer.
Furthermore, the present reporting apparatus is extremely versatile because a report is delivered in word phrases when the destination receiver is a paging receiver or other similar devices while for telephone devices, a report is delivered in voice phrases.
Also, the present reporting apparatus offers additional capabilities of processing cancellation or postponement requests that have not been available to date.